The House of Representatives yesterday rejected a proposal for the recommendations of the National Conference to be subjected to a referendum, while approving for state creation to go through the process.
This is just as the lawmakers approved independent candidacy for electoral offices and life pension for former presiding officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly.
The House took these decisions while voting on the report of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Constitution yesterday.
One of the alterations approved by the House makes it mandatory for the president to address a joint meeting of the National Assembly once a year.
Out of the 261 House members that participated in the constitution amendment voting process, 252 members voted in favour of the amendments, 8 voted against and one abstained. A two-third vote (240 of the 360-member House) is required to amend the constitution before it will be forwarded to the 36 state Houses of Assembly for concurrence.
The 71 amendments approved by the House border on: legislative immunity, local government autonomy, state creation, indigeneship and citizenship, independent candidacy in elections, budgetary process, life pension for National Assembly heads, role for traditional rulers, amongst others.
An alteration of Section 7, amongst others, stops revenue allocation from the federation account to local governments that are not democratically elected. Local government administrations also stand dissolved at the expiration of four years commencing from the date the members of council were sworn in.
House members, while altering Section 59, also voted to bypass the president if he fails to sign a Bill presented to him within 30 days.
“Within seven days, the president of the Senate shall convene a joint sitting of the National Assembly to reconsider the Bill, and if passed by two-thirds majority of members of both houses at such joint sitting, the Bill shall become law and the assent of the president shall not be required,” the alteration reads.
In other key constitutional amendments, House members also approved independent candidacy in elections in Nigeria.
The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, Nigerian Police, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and national security agencies have now been placed on a first-line charge from Nigeria’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
The lawmakers equally approved life pension for the presidents and deputy presidents of Senate and speakers and deputy speakers of the House of Representatives, provided that they were not impeached from office.
An alteration of Section 241, which inserts a new subsection (2A), bars Nigerian courts or tribunals from staying any proceeding on account of an interlocutory appeal.
House members also voted to include seven items in the concurrent legislative list, including agriculture, railways and pensions.http://leadership.ng/news/387176/reps-okay-referendum-state-creation
